this should be a property on the model rather than in the middle of this method. e.g. 

    Balanced.Model = Ember.Object.extend({ date_formats: { 'short': '%e %b \'%y %l:%M %p' }, ... });

that way we can refer to is like `Date.parseISO8601(this.get('created_at')).strftime(Balanced.Model.date_formats.short);` which is more readable